NBA Notebook: Labor talks are just that

NBA NOTEBOOKLeague hopeful, but players' union sees little progress

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, June 13, 2004

AUBURN HILLS, MICH. - David Stern's always-positive spin ended with a hopeful tone about the league's labor negotiations with the players' union.

"In the language of diplomacy, (talks) have been frank, cordial, open," Stern said.

That was the best he could do. At least they are talking.

Remove the spin, and it comes down to that at most they are talking. The person he is talking to — Billy Hunter — sounded ready to get bloody.

"We are not close. We are far apart, very far apart," said Hunter, executive director of the NBA Players Association. "It's like I told David six years ago, you can't get what you want without some blood."

Perhaps it was just desperate hope after the protracted, bloody negotiations that led to the current collective bargaining agreement as it heads into its last season. Stern has yet to roll out the rhetoric of a broken system that needs radical changes.

Perhaps Hunter was merely cranking up his own rhetoric level or preparing to rally the troops, but he sounded ready to do battle.

"David thought the system is working, but it needed to be tweaked," Hunter said. "My interpretation is they would like to have a hard cap.

"My top priorities are to get rid of the escrow and the luxury tax, making the system more flexible so there is greater movement ... so players have an opportunity, not a guarantee but an opportunity, to get their market value."

The escrow is the portion of player salaries that is withheld to be distributed back to the owners should player salaries exceed 55 percent (57 percent next season) of overall basketball-related income. The luxury tax penalizes teams for spending too much.

"Teams are holding down their spending," he said. "The league's perspective is the system is working because salaries have been flat. There has been little or no growth in players' salaries over the last few years. It is like a hard cap."

The league has gotten nowhere with the notion of having an age requirement, and Hunter has no interest in the league's idea of expanding the National Basketball Development League to allow teams to train young players. The union probably could negotiate conditions that would keep veterans from being banished, but there is no interest.

"Teams could have 15 without having to declare somebody on the injured list," Hunter said. "They are not mandating as part of their proposal that everyone would have to carry 15 players. What they're saying is they would like to have an affiliation with a minor league. I don't think it's necessary."

"It doesn't matter whether they are getting NBA contracts or not. I'm not in support of a minor league. My attitude is don't draft them. If you don't think they are good enough to play, don't draft them.

"I proposed six years ago as an alternative that for every year that a kid stayed in college a year would be taken off the rookie scale. But the commissioner and the owners don't want that."

As far apart as two sides sound, they do have more than a year to close the gap. But for now, Hunter sounds as if he is ready for a fight.

Protecting their own

The Rockets put together their list of players protected from the expansion draft, employing as many strategies as nearly any team.

The Rockets might have wanted to leave their big contracts exposed, but the Charlotte Bobcats are not likely to take anyone featured on Cribs unless it is for another team. They could have exposed players who don't play, hoping to limit the on-court damage.

Adrian Griffin, who barely played last season and might struggle to ever regain his form, is certain to have been left unprotected.

But now it gets tougher. Eric Piatkowski fell almost out of the rotation and is likely to be unprotected.

If he is unprotected, the Rockets would have to choose one of three frontcourt players — Maurice Taylor, Kelvin Cato and Clarence Weatherspoon — to protect. Cato makes the most money but was a starter and has just two years remaining on his contract. The Bobcats are not looking for contracts like Taylor and Weatherspoon's, and they are not expansion-team players, making them the next most likely to be exposed.

The Bobcats must select 14 players, and league teams can lose no more than one player. For the Rockets, that most likely will be Griffin.

Odds and ends

Although
Marcus Camby
opted out of his contract — worth $7.75 million next season — he might have indicated the likelihood he will return to the Nuggets by becoming a free agent. Camby wanted a long-term deal, but players don't opt out to make less money, and few teams are able or willing to offer more than the deal Camby had. ... The Celtics are certain to be active in trade talks with too many players and picks. Not only do they have three first-round picks, they had three rookies last season, too. "Ideally you don't want to draft four players," general manager
Danny Ainge
said. "You probably only want to draft two. But our big thing is we need to upgrade our talent. I won't even take into consideration our roster as to who I draft. Who we have on the roster doesn't matter. I'm drafting the guys I think are the best players and just try to upgrade from there." ...

If it was not already clear that Kobe Bryant wants to be pursued more than he wants to leave the Lakers, his openness to visiting the cap-strapped Knicks made that obvious. "The question was if Isiah (Thomas) called, would you listen and I said, 'Yeah,' " Bryant said. "I don't know how it got spun into me and Isiah having a meeting. I'd listen. I don't know about being eager or having some meeting set up." ... While most of the expansion-list names that have gotten attention are the big-name players left unprotected — Allan Houston, Jerry Stackhouse and Antoine Walker — none is likely to ever play for the Bobcats. But there might be some names that would please Tracy McGrady if Charlotte picks up a veteran to send to Orlando in their pursuit of the No. 1 pick.